Race Car

HAGERSTOWN - It will be a night for the kids at the Hagerstown Speedway this Saturday. Promoter Frank Plessinger will host "Small Fry Night at the Races" and four feature events. All children under 12 will be admitted free and have the opportunity to ride in a race car during intermission. Small Fry Night is one of the most popular programs on the schedule. Highlighting the program will be the Hoosier Tires Mid-Atlantic Sportsman and the Ernie's Salvage Yard pure stocks. The late-model sportsman division will have a complete program of qualifying and feature events.

Hagerstown Speedway will present its Race-A- Rama Car Show beginning Monday, March 4, with a week full of events to follow at Valley Mall. On Thursday, March 7, pictures will be taken from 6 to 8 p.m. in a race car in the area by Sears. Donations will be accepted to benefit the Humane Society of Washington County. On Friday, March 8,  auditions will be held to sing the national anthem at Hagerstown Speedway events. Auditions will be sung a capella in the Food Court area from 6 to 8 p.m. Registration will be from 5 to 6 p.m. On Saturday, March 9, the Easter Bunny will be in Center Court and participate in the Easter race car coloring/design contest from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The contest will be for age groups 2 to 4, 5 to 7, and 8 to 11. The winner in each age group will receive a $25 mall gift card.

It is fitting, perhaps, that George Rice "Joie" Chitwood would be remembered as the first driver to have ever snapped a seat belt together during a trip around the famed Indianapolis 500 Speedway. A seat belt and Joie Chitwood? For anyone who knows about Chitwood - the wild adventures, the hurtling machinery and the thrill show chills - it almost doesn't add up. "But, if you knew my grandfather, you knew he was always ahead of his time," said Joie Chitwood III, his hands firmly on the wheel of a Chevrolet Corvette pace car as it wound its way around the Indianapolis track during a pre-Indy 500 media event.

By BRENDAN KIRBY and KERRY LYNN FRALEY Staff Writers A Washington County man was taken to the hospital Monday night after a front-end loader he was driving crashed into a garage behind his family's house at 136 Hump Road, according to the Washington County Sheriff's Department. Blake W. "Buddy" Durboraw, 26, was taken to Washington County Hospital shortly after the 9:20 p.m. incident, deputies said. The garage contained a race car that Durboraw told authorities was jointly owned by him and his father, William L. Durboraw Sr., 56, deputies said.

By STEVEN T. DENNIS Staff Writer NASCAR fans lined up for a high-octane test drive in a show car simulating Jeff Gordon's No. 24 at Hoffman Chevrolet Monday afternoon. Engines roared, tires screeched and cars crashed, but no one was hurt. The "drivers," young and old, were playing a video game, Daytona USA, inside a former Chevrolet NASCAR race car detailed to look like Gordon's Dupont Chevrolet. "You get to sit in Jeff Gordon's car...It's cool," said Jeff Jones, who had his picture taken with fellow NASCAR fan Lori Shoemaker outside the car. Tammy Whisner wore her Jeff Gordon T-shirt and brought her children Cody, 6, and Amanda, 9. "It's really neat," Whisner.

Washington County will hold a scrap tire drop-off on Saturday, May 17, at the Forty West Landfill west of Hagerstown. From 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., county residents may take used tires to the landfill at 12630 Earth Care Road, one mile west of Huyetts Crossroads on U.S. 40. Residents will not be charged to drop off tires; the disposal and recycling costs will be paid by the Maryland Department of the Environment, a county press release states....

Each year, Cub Scout area packs participate in Pinewood Derby races. The Cub Scouts and an adult partner plan design and construct a race car from a block of wood. The car must meet regulations established by the National Boy Scouts of America and adopted by the Mason-Dixon Council. The car's maximum overall width is 2 3/4 inches and a maximum length of 7 inches and may not exceed 5 ounces. At a pack meeting or activity day, Cub Scouts race their cars with against pack members.

Driver cruises out of retirement By ANDREA BROWN-HURLEY / Staff Writer photo: RICHARD T. MEAGHER/ staff photographer BOONSBORO - At 58, Doug Mills hasn't lost his drive. "You don't put an age limit on your dreams," said Mills, of near Boonsboro. "But you might put a speed limit on them. " After cruising out of an eight-year retirement in 1999, the veteran race car driver this August captured the Grand American AGT (American Grand Touring) driver's title in the inaugural season of NASCAR's Grand American Road Racing Series.

Just off Georgetown Road, an innocuous little stretch of pavement that connects the city of Indianapolis to a little town appropriately called Speedway, a large white building sits on a green hill in the center of the most famous race track in the world. They call it the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame. It could easily be called the Harry Armenius Miller Center. No one would complain. Look around this place and Miller's fingerprints are here. His cars sit here. His image is here.

SUMMIT POINT, W.Va. -- William H. "Bill" Scott, owner of Summit Point Motorsports Park and BSR Inc., and a 1970 Formula Vee world champion, has died, longtime friend and professional colleague Roger Lyle said Tuesday. Scott, 71, of Middleburg, Va., died Monday. He had been battling cancer, Lyle said. He is survived by his wife, Barbara, and children. BSR Inc. trained thousands of drivers in accident-avoidance techniques, including defensive driving and counter-terrorism tactics, Lyle said.

National Little League will hold tryouts and registration Saturday and Sunday. Registration will be held at the National Little League press box, 728 Frederick St., behind the city's Potterfield Pool. Registration and tryouts: Saturday, 10:30 a.m. - 9- and 10-year-olds    Saturday, noon - 11- and 12-year-olds Sunday - 12:30 p.m. -   9- to 12-year-olds On Saturday, March 16, tryouts will be held  for all 7-year-olds who want to play minor league and 8- to 11-year- olds who played minor league last year.

Hagerstown Speedway will present its Race-A- Rama Car Show beginning Monday, March 4, with a week full of events to follow at Valley Mall. On Thursday, March 7, pictures will be taken from 6 to 8 p.m. in a race car in the area by Sears. Donations will be accepted to benefit the Humane Society of Washington County. On Friday, March 8,  auditions will be held to sing the national anthem at Hagerstown Speedway events. Auditions will be sung a capella in the Food Court area from 6 to 8 p.m. Registration will be from 5 to 6 p.m. On Saturday, March 9, the Easter Bunny will be in Center Court and participate in the Easter race car coloring/design contest from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The contest will be for age groups 2 to 4, 5 to 7, and 8 to 11. The winner in each age group will receive a $25 mall gift card.

Dave Norris likes the people at Breast Cancer Awareness-Cumberland Valley. So much so that he decided to paint his race car pink. The car, which will compete in 16 races at Hagerstown Speedway this year, was at the offices of the local breast cancer awareness organization Friday afternoon. Norris, who has been involved in dirt-track racing for much of his life, said he decided to paint his Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS pink in honor of his sister-in-law, Cindi Pettit of Hagerstown, who was diagnosed with breast cancer about two years ago. Pettit received a lot of help from Breast Cancer Awareness-Cumberland Valley in her battle against the disease and so in return, Norris got the idea to transform his car in tribute to the group.

"The Great Race," America's premier old car rally, is coming to Chambersburg for lunch today, bringing a variety of antique automobiles to  Memorial Square. Live music and other festivities in the square will welcome the trucks, Hot Rods and other classics as they begin arriving in the heart of Franklin County shortly after noon. Cars will arrive each minute for an hour and a half and will remain parked around the square to allow spectators to visit with the participants and to look at the automobiles, according to a news release.

Some of the brightest young talents in auto racing from across the country converged on the “little track” at Hagerstown Speedway last weekend, with several local drivers walking away with new hardware. The United States Auto Club “Generation Next” quarter midget tour brought in 167 entries from across the country for the inaugural Mason Dixon Shootout. Numerous drivers from the Hagerstown Quarter Midget Association participated, and they won eight of 16 features in the two-day event.

Gabrielle "Gabby" Beville is going to Akron, Ohio, this summer and she's pretty happy to be going. Akron is best known for two things — tires and the All-American Soap Box Derby, and the 11-year-old from Linden, Va., has qualified to compete against the nation's finest drivers of gravity-powered racecars in July. On Saturday, Gabby and about 20 other racers competed at an indoor rally in Stanley Fulton Business Complex in Hancock sponsored by Central Maryland Soap Box Derby.

SUMMIT POINT, W.Va. -- William H. "Bill" Scott, owner of Summit Point Motorsports Park and BSR Inc., and a 1970 Formula Vee world champion, has died, longtime friend and professional colleague Roger Lyle said Tuesday. Scott, 71, of Middleburg, Va., died Monday. He had been battling cancer, Lyle said. He is survived by his wife, Barbara, and children. BSR Inc. trained thousands of drivers in accident-avoidance techniques, including defensive driving and counter-terrorism tactics, Lyle said.

HAGERSTOWN -- Motor sports typically bring to mind powerful vehicles with furiously roaring engines leaving trails of sullied exhaust fumes swirling in the air. The Electric Vehicle Association of Washington, D.C., keeps the powerful vehicles motif, but leaves the roaring engines and exhaust fumes in the dust. The group hosted the ninth annual Power of D.C. E.V. Racing Event Saturday in the Valley Mall parking lot. About 10 drivers maneuvered their electric vehicles -- known as EVs -- around an Auto Cross course.

GREENCASTLE, Pa. -- The smell of hot asphalt, the sound of squealing tires, the feel of inertia sucking him back in the seat as the car races toward 60 mph. For Herbert "Herbie" Null Jr. of Greencastle, racing almost is like a drug. "It's in my blood," he said. Now that he is a national champion super stock drag racer, his talent for the sport is intimidating the competition at each race. Null recently won Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., for super stock, one of the largest races in the U.S. Yet sitting in his Greencastle home, Null barely acknowledges the case of trophies behind him. When asked what he does, Null said, "I work for Mack in the engine test department.

Mackenzie Householder, 7, Boonsboro Seven-year-old Mackenzie Householder knows firsthand the responsibility required to care for a cow. All week, she has been helping care for her cousin's cow at the Washington County Ag Expo & Fair. "You've got to feed it and water it," Mackenzie said. "When it poops, you have to wipe its butt with a paper towel. It stinks. " Still, Mackenzie has decided she wants to show an animal of her own next year. "I think it's gonna be really, really fun," she said.